RISK MANAGEMENT EDUCATION NEEDS OF SMALL AND LIMITED RESOURCE PRODUCERS IN ALABAMA

Summary

Agricultural risk management is increasingly becoming a key issue for farmers and ranchers and continues to attract significant political attention. Much of the research in this area has been oriented towards commercial agriculture (large farmers and ranchers). There is critical need for more research on understanding how small and limited resource farmers and ranchers make decisions under uncertain economic and market conditions. This type of information is necessary to better understand these producers’ goals and motivations, and to assist in developing targeted educational and outreach programs. This paper provides selected preliminary summary statistics from a survey of limited resource farmers and ranchers in Alabama. The results are based on a risk management needs-assessment survey conducted between October 2007 and June 2008. The population of interest consisted of farmers and ranchers with less than $100,000 of sales during the 2002 Census of Agriculture. With this assumption, we were able to capture most, if not all, of the small and limited resource agricultural producers in Alabama. The major subject categories reported in this poster include: perceptions of various risks and the effectiveness of risk management tools, perceptions of farm policy alternatives, crop insurance participation, participation in and desire for risk management education, and use of pricing techniques.